The Rewards of Pig-Headedness

All the way back in 2009, when my marriage was only four years old, and I wasn’t even a father yet, we took a trip to the mid-Atlantic island of Sao Miguel. The volcanic beauty and verdant exuberance of the island combined in my head with the impending birth of our first child (and an oddity on our map), to inspire a story of life, death, and friendship entitled The Life and Death of George Hayes.

Story completed, and revised thanks to the insightful comments by my fellow VD members, I sent it out on its first submission. That was on July 3rd, 2011.

Cut to today.

Over the past almost seven years, ole George has amassed no less than 33 rejections, and spent a whopping total of 2,500 days in those 33 slush piles. Discouragement was waiting to pounce; in fact, the next item for George in my sub options list was “self-pub”.